Inventory number
ΕΑΜ Χ 6447
Category
Bronzes
Period
Classical Period
Date
475-470 BC
Dimensions
Height: 0.3 m
Material
Bronze
Location
First Floor Free-standing Case 39, Νο 1
Statuette of Athena Promachos. It was discovered east of the Erechtheion in 1887.
The armed and threatening goddess seems ready to strike her opponent with the now-lost spear she once held in her upraised hand. With the other hand, she would have gripped a shield, from which only part of the handle is preserved. On her head she wears a helmet with a spectacular crest, the top of which is in the shape of a swan's head. She wears a long chiton above which falls another garment, perhaps a peplos, and a himation. A gilded aegis with incised scales and stylised snakes along its edge covers her chest and back.
On the base, where the figure stands, the inscription ΜΕΛΕΣΟ ΑΝΕΘΕΚΕΝ ΔΕΚΑΤΕΝ ΤΑΘΕΝΑΙΑΙ reveals that "Meleso dedicated it to Athena as a tithe". The statuette belongs to a series of bronze works inspired by the sculptures of the east pediment of the "Old Temple" of Athena Polias as well as the goddess' depictions on Panathenaic amphorae.
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